I love the line in this article that Rudy out Reagan's Reagan.
Rudy’s Legacy
A model for the Right.
Mr. Murdock is a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service.
December 21, 2001 8:00 a.m.
fter Argentina's imploding economy swallowed his violin shop, Jorge Dominguez lamented his country's woeful political leadership. As he recently told the Wall Street Journal: "We need Giuliani."
Since 9-11, Rudy Giuliani has wowed observers from Broadway to Buenos Aires. His 12-31 departure will be a major loss both for New York and the American Right. While other politicians deliver more conservative speeches or sponsor more libertarian legislation, Giuliani is unparalleled in actually making free-market ideas stand up and stroll down the street.
True, many on the Right criticize him for favoring strict local gun controls and abortion rights, although he inherited the former and rarely discusses the latter. Some conservatives also scold him for marching with Log Cabin Republicans in the annual Gay Pride parade, although this appears neither to have boosted divorces nor reduced live births.
But social conservatives should applaud Giuliani's emphasis on individual responsibility and accountability rather than excuses. This paradigm shift yielded his greatest triumph: a 57 percent plunge in overall crime and 65 percent reduction in homicide since he arrived on January 1, 1994.
Under Giuliani, New York's public-assistance rolls shrank 53.4 percent, from 1,112,490 in 1993 to 518,823 today. While most of these individuals now work, others disappeared after Giuliani cracked down on welfare fraud.
In January 1994, Giuliani junked a 20 percent set-aside for minority- and women-owned businesses. This policy also let them win city business while overbidding white competitors by 10 percent.
"How we could pay 10 percent more for anything seemed incomprehensible to me," he once told the Manhattan Institute. Giuliani replaced rules that would "perpetuate discrimination," with "an ethnic, race, religious, gender and sexual-orientation neutral program in city procurement." New York now explains application procedures to new contractors and subdivides large contracts to help neophytes compete.
Giuliani's executive order, coincidentally sustained in a court case that week, did more for colorblindness than Republicans even have attempted while controlling Congress and the White House.
Fiscally speaking, Giuliani slashed or killed 23 different taxes and lowered the personal income tax rate 21 percent. His budgets held average annual spending increases to just 2.9 percent (versus 3.7 percent in Washington, largely under a GOP Congress). In fiscal year 1995 and his FY 2002 forecast, nominal outlays actually decreased. That out-Reagans Reagan.
While Giuliani hired 12 percent more cops and 12.8 percent more teachers, municipal employment otherwise fell 17.2 percent from 117,494 to 97,338.
Giuliani stopped City Hall from stockpiling tax-foreclosed properties. His "Building Blocks!" program cut city-owned apartments by 70 percent, from 44,000 units in 1994 to 13,278 today. Continued sales to neighborhood entrepreneurs and private tenants soon will extract city government completely from the distressed housing business.
Giuliani aggressively has privatized city assets and functions. As he explains, "the issue of privatization of certain public services is not about public versus private, but rather about monopoly versus competition."
He revitalized Off-Track Betting (a municipal bookie operation that actually lost $5.3 million under mayor David Dinkins) then sold it last August for $260 million. He divested WNYC-TV for $207 million in 1996.
Giuliani also privatized Central Park. Since 1998, the Central Park Conservancy has managed Manhattan's 843-acre rectangular wonderland. Strangely, this private group has not commenced logging. Central Park is now immaculately manicured at lower cost to taxpayers.
Giuliani achieved this and more as a Republican in a liberal bastion whose city council is 45-6 Democrat. Long before terrorists attacked, Giuliani was as intrepid, relentless and tough as he has been since 9-11. Rather than tremble before his opponents, as too many do on the Right, Giuliani cajoled, confronted and ridiculed them into submission.
Giuliani also promoted his agenda through innumerable media appearances and his weekly call-in radio show. Unlike so many Beltway Republicans, he does not expect to generate positive headlines by shivering beneath his desk.
In practice, Giuliani is as good as it gets on the Right. President Bush, whose domestic gentility charms Democrats yet invites their mischief, should borrow Giuliani's bottle of S.O.B. pills.
Bush should return the favor by naming Giuliani director of Central Intelligence. Alternatively, Giuliani should rescue his state by challenging its 40-watt governor, George Pataki, for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. In either case, as Rudy rides off into the skyline, Republicans, conservatives, and libertarians should learn this lesson from his example: If their ideas can make it here, they can make it anywhere.
Worth repeating!
And then tell me how someone who is more interested in political cronyism in the selection of such a critical, national security position - after the 9/11 attacks and during a time of war - is better on national security than any of the other candidates. Despite getting the reports about comms not working between FDNY and NYPD during the 1993 WTC attack, Giuliani didn't fix the situation and 8 years later found the city unprepared for the 2001 WTC attack. Tell me how that helps his image on national security and war fighting issues. I mean, if a glaring security and safety deficiency, exposed by an attack on us, is found in our national security or our armed forces, will it take President/Commander in Chief Giuliani 8 years to fix it if he even attempts to fix it?
Giuliani agreed to give the New York Stock Exchange a $1.1 Billion dollar handout (which, by the way, is equal to the entire operating budget of the New York Fire Department) but he could never find it in the budget to upgrade the FDNY and NYPD communications systems even after the original WTC attacks demonstrated their deficiencies. How does this demonstrate the way he will act as Commander in Chief when determining priorities for the military and homeland security?
In truth, the whole national security thing with Giuliani is purely myth. Yes, he's a war hawk. Just like almost every other Republican Presidential candidate right now except for Paul and Hagel. But his actual record on issues that directly pertain to how he would operate as President is not going to help him.
Law and Order: His law and order record does not go well beyond clearing the streets of squeegee men, bums, and hookers. Some tout his efforts to go after organized crime, but he lost all credibility on that when it was exposed that he'd appointed a corrupt high school dropout with mob ties to be the Commissioner of the New York Police Department. Bernie Kerik, again. Giuliani went on the strong arm President Bush into appointing Kerik to one of the top law enforcement positions in the country - the head of the Department of Homeland Security. Kerik had to withdraw his name when he was later indicted for his crimes for which he received an even later conviction. He avoided jail, but narrowly.
Giuliani also continued the 'sanctuary city' policies of enacted by his Democrat predecessors. He welcomed hundreds of thousands of criminals - illegal aliens - into his city and refused to work with the INS on enforcing immigration laws. In fact, so annoyed with the pressure that INS was putting on him to cooperate and uphold law and order, he actually sued the Federal Government to try to be able to just ignore the law and continue coddling hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens. His lawsuit failed, and failed again on appeal, but he flouted the law anyway and continued to coddle the hundreds of thousands of criminals in his city.
Appointments/Nominations to his administration:First, I'll start with two words. Bernie Kerik. We know what a great job Giuliani did at getting Bush to appoint his mobbed up, high school dropout, corrupt business partner Bernie Kerik to head the Department of Homeland Security. Giuliani earlier appointed Kerik to head the New York Police Department And we know now how that all worked out. Kerik narrowly avoided jail, but he was convicted anyway.
Giuliani, in a quid pro quo for the New York Liberal Party's endorsement and support, appointed Liberal Party Chairwoman Fran Reiter as Deputy Mayor. He also appointed Russell Harding, the son of Giuliani's close friend Raymond Harding who also chaired the Liberal Party and was one of Giuliani's closest campaign advisers, to be the City Housing Director. Russell Harding had to leave office upon being arrested by federal law enforcement and charged with conspiracy, fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, receiving child pornography, and possesing child pornography. He was using his official credit card to pay for personal items including a car, 'Sopranos' and 'Sex in the City' DVDs, and a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. He later pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 5 years in prison and forced to repay $367,000 he embezzled from the New York City.
Yes, Rudy Giuliani has a sterling record when it comes to appointing people to positions in his administration. One can only imagine the types of people he'd appoint to his administration and to the Supreme Court if given the opportunity. It would be wise not to give him that opportunity given his record.
Fiscal Conservatism:Rudy is no fiscal conservative. He's a big government Republican. Rudy got taxes cut $2.0 billion. But that only offset the $1.8 billion tax increase Mayor Dinkins signed off on a few years earlier. A modest $200 million tax cut. Rudy also froze the 12.5% surcharge on high income earners, but he didn't eliminate the surcharge. Nor did Rudy abolish the city income tax structure. Rudy also left NYCity saddled with a projected, pre-9/11 deficit of $2.0 billion and a $42 billion debt. Second largest behind the federal government. Rudy also added 15,000 new teachers to the city employment rolls, helping to increase the membership of two of America's largest liberal oraganizations. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Rudy also took all those savings from the cuts in welfare costs and applied them to other city welfare progarms. Really no savings whatsoever. The scope of city services wasn't reduced. In addition, Rudy almost doubled the costs of contractual outsourcing from $3.0 billion to $5.8 billion.
New York City went from a $3 billion budget surplus in 1998 to a $4.5 billion deficit after Giuliani left office. Added 25,000 government employees patronage hires to the city's payroll after promising to cut the work force. Giuliani's borrowing practices increased the city's debt burden by 50 percent. Partly because of Giuliani, New York City is now the biggest debtor in the nation outside of the federal government with $42 billion in loans outstanding.